Recently published in the U.S. after winning several accolades in Tan’s native Australia, The Arrival is a wordless picture book about culture shock, from the point of view of an immigrant who has left his family behind to start over in a strange new city. No, not just strange. Surreal. This city could easily be on another planet.
Herded, poked, and prodded through a variation on Ellis Island by way of Dr. Seuss, our guy arrives with nothing but his suitcase. The statues on the city streets, the machines, even the vegetables come in unexpected shapes, and the animals, like the little fellow on the cover below, look like critters from the background of a Hieronymous Bosch painting. His new life is completely foreign to him—and to us, looking over his shoulder—and with no familiar points of reference or common language, he sets out to find work, food, a place to live.
Lovely sepia-toned illustrations, creased at the edges like snapshots in an old photograph album, document his progress. This story really had to be told in pictures, because it’s about having no words, in a place that you don’t know the language or even the look of the alphabet. Our man would be lost without the help of people who stop to explain: just dial this number, pull this crank, take this ticket to the window over there… only with no words. Just pointing. And smiling.
Other immigrants to this melting-pot New World share their stories of the Old World places they left, and these images are pretty eerie. Dragon’s tails curl through the streets of one city. Masked figures with searchlights and threatening machines stalk a cathedral town like giant exterminators. A soldier retreats through a field of bones.
The soft-toned, surreal images reminded me of another favorite, Chris van Allsburg’s The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. But where van Allsburg’s work is a little on the creepy side, The Arrival has a great warmth. Its characters are generous with their hospitality and their patience. By the final panels, our guy’s wife and daughter have joined him, and they’ve begun to belong to the city, offering their help to other perplexed newcomers in turn.
Charlotte,
This is a fantastic book. Thanks for writing about it. My question: Would you call it a graphic novel?
Yes, I would, Jessica, and thanks for reminding me that we have a TAG for graphic novels!
I read this today on the basis of this review, and I thought it was amazing!